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By McClatchy-Tribune News Service

Dennis Rodman helps celebrate Kim Jong Un’s 31st birthday

BEIJING — Dennis Rodman helped Kim Jong Un mark his 31st birthday Wednesday with sport and song, serenading the North Korean dictator with a warbly rendition of “Happy Birthday” in a Pyongyang gymnasium and then leading fellow ex-NBA players in a game against a local squad.

Spectators were not allowed to bring cameras into the modestly appointed arena, but video posted later online showed Rodman in sunglasses leading the crowd — many of them in sport coats and dress shirts — in a singing tribute to “The Marshal.”

Then the Americans, in blue and white uniforms, faced off against the North Koreans, or the “Torch Team,” in red.

LONDON — Fury from family and supporters greeted an inquest jury’s finding Wednesday that police acted lawfully when they shot Mark Duggan in the chest in 2011, a killing that sparked the worst outbreak of urban violence in Britain in a quarter of a century.

The 10-member jury decided by an 8-2 majority that Duggan, a suspected gang member, threw a gun into the grass several feet from the taxi in which he was riding and was therefore unarmed when police stopped the vehicle Aug. 4, 2011, believing he had just taken delivery of a firearm.

However, the panel concluded by a 9-1 majority that the fatal shooting was lawful because a police marksman believed Duggan still had a gun in his hand and was about to fire.

—Los Angeles Times

Morsi’s court date postponed; bad weather cited

CAIRO — Egyptian authorities on Wednesday abruptly called off a court appearance by deposed president Mohammed Morsi, saying bad weather prevented a helicopter flight from his prison in northern Egypt to the heavily guarded police complex in the capital where he is on trial.

After a brief procedural hearing, the case was adjourned until Feb. 1, lawyers said. Morsi and his 14 co-defendants are accused of incitement to commit murder.

—Los Angeles Times

Indian government orders US Embassy in New Delhi to cease commercial activities

MUMBAI, India — In the latest salvo of a surprisingly bitter diplomatic feud, the Indian government on Wednesday ordered the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi to cease commercial activities at a popular club for Americans on its premises.

The demand comes as U.S. officials weigh whether to prosecute an Indian diplomat in New York on charges that she obtained fraudulent visa documents for her housekeeper and violated labor laws by paying her far below minimum wage.

The newest move is to ban a club on embassy grounds from selling alcohol and other imported duty-free items to non-diplomats, one of the more popular services available to American expatriates in New Delhi. Indian authorities also asked the embassy to no longer allow non-diplomats to use the club’s beauty salon, swimming pool, gym, tennis court and other facilities.

DUSSELDORF, Germany — An 88-year-old German was charged Wednesday with participating in one of the most notorious massacres of civilians during World War II while murder charges against a 92-year-old former Nazi officer in the slaying of a Dutch resistance fighter were dropped because of lost evidence.

The two cases, which are unrelated, mark the latest developments in a last-ditch effort on the part of German prosecutors to bring Nazi war criminals, most of whom are now in their 90s, to justice.

—dpa

8 arrested by Spanish police, suspected links to separatist group

MADRID — Spanish police on Wednesday arrested eight people with suspected links to the Basque separatist group ETA, the authorities announced.

Two lawyers who have represented ETA suspects in the past were among those arrested in various towns in the Basque region and neighboring Navarre.

Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz said the police action was a “further step toward the dissolution of the armed organization.”

Protesters said the move would only make a peaceful solution of the Basque issue more difficult.

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